Furniture Making Apprenticeships

 

An Edward Barnsley Workshop Apprenticeship provides a thorough practical training in a commercial environment. Apprentices work alongside experienced furniture makers. In 1924 Edward Barnsley engaged his first apprentice, Herbert Upton, who went on to become the workshop foreman. Alan Peters OBE (1933-2009) is perhaps the best known of the workshop's former apprentices. Since 1980 the Edward Barnsley Educational Trust has supported training in the workshop. Today the tradition of high quality training continues. In 2007 former apprentice Gary Tuddenham won a gold medal in cabinet-making for the UK at the WorldSkills competition in Japan.

The Foundation Apprenticeship

The Foundation Apprenticeship is an intensive one-year cabinet-making course. It provides workshop experience and a basic wage. We take on up to three apprentices each year depending on the quality of applicants. All training in the workshop is devoted to practical furniture making. It is not a design course.

Apprentices make a wide variety of Barnsley designs guided by Stephen Rock the Craftsman-Tutor. They work on each piece from start to finish, mostly one-offs but occasionally a small batch run. They are taught how to make furniture to a high standard and how to produce it with increasing efficiency. Apprentices spend the first three months improving their skills using only hand tools. They are then taught how to use machines safely. They spend the rest of the year learning a broad range of Barnsley techniques, making furniture of increasing complexity. The programme is finished off with a larger piece that will look impressive in their portfolio. All their work is sold from the Barnsley showroom.

We monitor apprentices’ progress closely. They receive feedback after each completed job and an overall assessment every three months.
 
The majority of the apprentices' time is spent at the bench. The rest is spent in the machine shop and helping with jobs around the workshop. They are expected to do some essential workshop tasks including sweeping up and machine maintenance.

Those who feel the apprenticeship would not suit them may like to consider coming to the Barnsley Workshop as a fee-paying pupil.

Pay

Currently foundation apprentices receive £7280 per annum based on a forty-hour week at £3.50 per hour with four weeks per annum and statutory days paid holiday (subject to change).

Hours

The working day is from 8 am to 4.30 pm.

Accommodation

We do not provide accommodation but we have always managed to help apprentices find somewhere to live.

Tools

Each employee has a bench and a tool storage area. We provide all the tools apprentices will need. They gradually build up their own kit but are advised to try out workshop ones before buying their own. Most apprentices have applied successfully for grants to pay for tools.

Transport

There is little public transport in Froxfield. Apprentices are expected to make their own arrangements.

Private Work

Apprentices can work on their own projects outside workshop hours providing they have obtained permission and there is another person in the workshop.

Applications

Applicants who wish to be considered for 2011 apprenticeships must contact the Workshop by Friday 20 May 2011.

To be eligible for the September 2011 intake applicants must present examples of their work by Friday 3 June 2011. We do not want prospective applicants to make initial contact with the workshop at the last minute. If you think you may be interested in the apprenticeship please contact Stephen Rock at the Barnsley Workshop and introduce yourself as soon as possible but definitely no later than Friday 20 May 2011.

We are looking for applicants who have a strong desire to improve their skills and want to establish a career making high quality furniture. Usually applicants have completed a college course, however we will consider anyone who is keen and can show us some furniture they have made. There is no age restriction on applicants but they must be eligible to work within the EU. We receive enquiries from all over the world. Under current employment legislation we are obliged to fill vacancies with applicants who are ‘resident within the European Economic Area’. This we can easily do because we receive at least ten applicants for each place. This issue does not apply to fee-paying pupils.

We want applicants to have a clear idea of what the Barnsley Workshop does. The best way is to come and look round the Workshop and meet the craftsmen and apprentices. Applicants often visit the workshop before bringing in examples of their work. However those travelling a long way may prefer to look round the workshop and to present their work on just one visit.

Applicants should provide us with digital or printed photographs of their work and also bring actual examples to the workshop. We are looking for evidence that they enjoy making things well, not necessarily just furniture. A completed application form must be submitted before presenting examples of work. The application form is available as a PDF from our website. When filling it in, applicants should know that we are looking for potential and enthusiasm rather than qualifications and experience.

The final selection procedure takes place during June. We draw up a short list of candidates and ask each of them to come in for a trial day. We then choose the new apprentices.

Certificates

The Edward Barnsley Educational Trust presents certificates to apprentices at the end of their course. In addition apprentices are provided with photographs of their work for their portfolio.

Beyond the Foundation Apprenticeship

After the initial foundation year some will stay on to complete a full apprenticeship. Others will use the experience gained with us to find work in other workshops. Of the fifty or so people who have trained in the Barnsley Workshop since the Trust started in 1980, so far fifteen have gone on to set up their own furniture-making businesses. Of the others almost all are working successfully as furniture makers.


"The Barnsley Trust is an embodiment of the idea that knowledge is not owned but is there to be shared for the benefit of all"

Adam Gamble
Adam Gamble Furniture
(Apprentice and Craftsman from 1987 to 1994)


"My training at first taught me a great deal about manual skill. I was then taught a great deal about humility and the degree of focused discipline needed to achieve those levels of skill. The motivation came from being inspired by the craftsmen I was working alongside and the extraordinary furniture they made. This is why the apprenticeship system works and why The Edward Barnsley Educational Trust continues to teach by example."

Hamish Low
The Furniture Works

 

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